Ask the Experts about home for life construction

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Aging in place, staying at home as you grow older, is very doable with the help of educated contractors and new products that allow you to create a gorgeous, accessible home.

P-S Berube Construction Design-Build has been renovating homes and building additions to accommodate older residents for many years. They have taken the next step and are now Certified Aging in Place Specialists.

Owner Peter Berube and Nancy Chapman, administrator, received the certifications in February after attending a three-day workshop. CAPS is the result of a collaboration between the National Association of Home Builders and AARP.

As with any renovation job, Berube and Chapman first visit a home free of charge and make recommendations.

Sometimes, the solution is simple adaptive designs, said Chapman. Door knobs should be changed to levered handles and the blocking added behind grab walls for safe grab-bar installation.

Other times, a new addition, with everything on one floor, is called for. A recent in-law addition built by Berube cost about the same as two years of nursing homes fees.

The results are "absolutely beautiful," Chapman said. "It's come so far it doesn't look institutional." Manufacturers have designed attractive, state-of-the art products that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Berube values doing things the right way and planning for aging-in-place when renovating fits in with his ethics.

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It is less expensive to build an ADA compliant "home for life" than to build and later renovate a space in order to make it livable for someone with impaired mobility.

More seniors than ever will be looking for home renovations due to recent changes in hospital discharge procedures, Chapman said. Hospitals are now held accountable if a patient returns within a given time period. Because 66 percent of the people who fall will fall again, medical professionals will make a home visit to help make the living area safer.

Then, a CAPS builder such as the Berubes might be consulted to suggest modifications.

The changes do not need to look institutional. Grab bars can blend in like a chair rail. Carpeting should be removed because it interferes with wheelchairs and walkers. Transitions from room to room should be seamless with no thresholds or texture changes to interfere with walking.

In the bathroom, minimal curbing to create a walk-in shower is often part of the renovations. The new ADA-compliant fixtures including hand-held showers that even make cleaning the enclosure easier are made by popular manufacturers like Kohler.

Berube has decades of contracting experience under his belt, allowing him to provide on-budget and hassle-free service to his customers. The firm recently moved to Townsend from Littleton.

Berube and his sons do much of the work themselves. "Peter is a craftsman and so are his sons," Chapman said. Jeff is a skilled carpenter and tiler, and Shawn is an experienced finish carpenter.

The company has ongoing relationships with specialty subcontractors and architects, which ensures the work will happen as scheduled. "The job stays on track," she said. "He's on top of everything."

A member of the National Association of Home Builders, Berube received the Feature Performance Award from the Professional Builders Magazine for a remodeling project in Westford that doubled the living space of a residential property.

Customers value Berube's work. New homeowners, a young couple, called him to work on their home. They knew his work from when he worked on a parent's home at the beginning of his career.

His careful work benefits others in the community. He spearheaded two projects providing accident victims with accessibility modifications to their homes. "Everybody just rallied," Chapman said. Vendors and subcontractors donated time and materials to get the jobs done.

Earning the CAPS certification comes at a good time. Baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, should be considering how to prepare their homes for the future, Chapman said.

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